This new set of tools goes far beyond the photo filters on which the company built its name, allowing users to tweak pictorial elements such as brightness, highlights and saturation.

These new tools turn Instagram, which Facebook purchased in 2012 for $1 billion, into a much more powerful photo editing tool. And all with the swipe of a finger.

What remains to be seen: whether powerful photo editing capabilities in the hands of the masses will result in more beautiful, finely-tuned photographs, or feeds full of over-saturated, contrasty messes.